All Christians have as their roots, Roman Catholicism, the Faith of the Fathers. With over 2,000 years of teaching, tradition, and as the Deposit of Faith, The Catholic Church has taught the Christian faithful, preached Christ Jesus and His Gospel.

Pages

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The following excerpts are from The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) Blog "Campus Notes":

Despite Catholic outrage over the University of Notre Dame’s 2009 invitation to President Barack Obama to address its graduates, the University has again invited the President to speak on campus as a candidate for reelection.:

WASHINGTON — Minor children on their parents’ health-care plans will have free coverage of sterilization and contraception, including abortion-causing drugs, under the controversial Health and Human Services mandate. And depending on the state, they can obtain access without parental consent.

Matt Bowman, senior counsel for the religious-liberty-focused legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said the mandate “tramples parental rights” because it requires them to “pay for and sponsor coverage of abortifacients, sterilization, contraception and education in favor of the same for their own children.”

The Department of Health and Human Services ruled in January 2012 that most employers who have 50 or more employees must provide the coverage as “preventive care” for “all women with reproductive capacity.”

The mandate also requires the coverage for beneficiaries, including minors, on the affected health plans, Bowman told Catholic News Agency Sept. 20. That means that a minor on her parents’ plan could be sterilized if she finds a doctor willing to perform the procedure.

Does one fragment of papyrus “about the size of a small cellphone” contradict centuries of Christian tradition that hold that Jesus was not married? The credulous news media seem to think so – they are publishing stories with titles: “The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,’ “New Early Christian Text, Indicates Jesus May Have Been Married.”

The New York Times reported that a scrap of papyrus “smaller than a business card,” translated by Harvard professor Karen King, includes this phrase: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife…’” The rest of the papyrus was cut off – but it was apparently enough for media outlets. CNN’s Belief Blog, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets blared headlines questioning Jesus’ marital status, including: “Text Reignites Debate: Did Jesus have a Wife?”

These outlets downplayed the fact that the papyrus fragment in question (which some scholars have questioned the authenticity of), in King’s judgment, dates from the 4th century, and that Jesus lived in the 1st century. They also failed to mention that there are several places in the New Testament where the church is referred to as the bride of Christ.

Despite these inconvenient facts, media outlets trumpeted the fragment, which King brazenly called “The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife.” The Washington Post’s Jeannine Hunter wrote: “The news reignited debate about scholarship focused on Jesus’s marital status and the veracity of early church documents.” The Huffington Post’s Jaweed Kaleem went even further, speculating: “A discovery by a Harvard researcher may shed light on a controversial aspect of the life of Jesus Christ.”

The New York Times reported King’s words: “This fragment suggests that some early Christians had a tradition that Jesus was married. There was, we already know, a controversy in the second century over whether Jesus was married, caught up with a debate about whether Christians should marry and have sex.”

But King appears to be confusing orthodox Christianity with Gnosticism, a loosely related group of sects which predated Christianity, fought against early Christians, and taught that “secret” knowledge was necessary for salvation. King failed to note that sects of Gnostics were the opponents of the institution of marriage, not Christians.

King’s conflation of early Christianity and Gnosticism is unsurprising, given the fact that her areas of expertise are heterodox forms of Christianity and “gender studies.” Her bio on the Harvard website states that “Her particular theoretical interests are in discourses of normativity (orthodoxy and heresy), gender studies, and religion and violence.”

During the Today's Professionals segment on Tuesday's NBC Today, chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman applauded New York City schools handing out morning-after contraception pills to teenage girls without parental consent: "Parents aren't going to like to hear this, but teenagers are having sex....People want to be anti-abortion. If you're anti-abortion you should be anti-pregnancy....the reality is it's smart public health."

Co-host Matt Lauer teed up Snyderman: "Let's remember that schools have been offering condoms for years now. Is this the next logical step, Nancy?" Moments after Snyderman praised the "smart" policy, advertising executive Donny Deutsch chimed in: "To me, if this stops unwanted pregnancies, this is a no-brainer, it's a fantastic idea."

Vatican
City, 26 September 2012 (VIS) - In New York on 24 September,
Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States,
addressed the United Nations High-level Meeting on the Rule of Law at
the National and International Levels.

Archbishop
Mamberti spoke in his capacity as Holy See delegate to the
sixty-seventh Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Brief extracts from his English-language remarks are given below.

"Faced
as we are by challenges old and new, the calling of the High-Level
Meeting on the Rule of Law is an important opportunity to reaffirm
the will to find political solutions applicable at the global level
with the aid of a juridical order solidly based upon the dignity and
nature of humanity, in other words, upon the natural law.

"This
is the best path to follow if we wish to realise the grand designs
and purpose of the United Nations Charter and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which remain relevant by means of
various treaties on human rights, disarmament, and the codification
of the great principles of international law and in the gathering and
progress made in the norms of humanitarian law.

"It
will be possible to advance if, as well as working through ever more
specialised organs, including in economic and financial matters, the
United Nations remains a central point of reference for the creation
of a true family of nations, where the unilateral interest of the
most powerful ones does not trump the needs of the weaker ones. Such
will be possible if legislation at the international level is marked
by respect for the dignity of the human person, beginning with the
centrality of the right to life and to freedom of religion".

Monday, September 24, 2012

The office of a Catholic bishop in the battleground state of Ohio is coming under criticism from pro-life groups for having a staffer who publicly supports pro-abortion President Barack Obama instruct Catholics on how to vote.

While, last week, referring to President Barack Obama, Archbishop Chaput said he couldn’t vote for someone who is pro-abortion, the office Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon is downplaying the importance of pro-life issues in the presidential election.

Lennon’s office his holding “Faithful Citizenship” meetings purportedly designed to aid Catholics in properly forming their consciences according to the truths of the Catholic faith, which would then guide them in voting on the presidential election. Central among these truths in an election year is the Catholic Church’s teaching that intrinsic evils — actions that are fundamentally and in every circumstance morally wrong, like abortion — may never be supported by faithful Catholics.

In fact, the Catholic Church terms abortion a “non-negotiable” issue, one which is a serious sin to endorse or promote in any way.

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

Jeffrey Tucker argues in a Crisis essay that parish music directors have been given too much control over the liturgy. When they try to match the music of each Sunday Mass to the Scripture readings, he says, musicians bend the liturgy to their own understanding.

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

A Scottish bishop has drawn public attention—and angry criticism—with his pointed criticism of groups lobbying for legal abortion and same-sex marriage.

"Why is the pro-choice lobby so desperate to hide the truth about abortion from the public?" asked Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell. He argued that the deliberate destruction of human life, and the effort to squelch public discussion of the killing, was reminiscent of the Nazi Holocaust. That comparison inflamed abortion supporters; a representative of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service called it “breathtakingly offensive.”

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

The moral commitment of a Christian politician must not be “limited to responding to the requirements of market logic,” Pope Benedict XVI told a group of Catholic political leaders at a private audience on September 22.

The Pope told the members of Christian Democrat International that they should work to advance the common good and to promote human dignity. In practice, he said, this will mean defending human life and marriage.

CHICAGO, September 24, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – After a Chicago alderman claimed last week that Chick-fil-A had agreed not to fund pro-family organizations, the fast food chain’s president Dan Cathy has set the record straight.

“Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been,” he said in a statement posted on Mike Huckabee’s website on Friday.

Last week, First Ward Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno, who has been opposing Chick-fil-A’s attempts to open a franchise because of Cathy’s traditional marriage views, claimed that the Christian business had agreed that its philanthropy arm, the WinShape Foundation, would no longer support organizations that oppose redefining marriage. The news was widely reported in the mainstream media as a major “victory” for the pro-homosexual movement.

However, the pro-family organization MassResistance told LifeSiteNews.com in an e-mail that a spokeswoman for the fast food chain specifically said the foundation would continue to fund the Family Research Council, Exodus International, Eagle Forum, and Focus on the Family, among others.

Friday, September 21, 2012

There is a trend in today’s Christianity that is ever growing, and is an alarming trend that threatens the very foundations and tenets of our faith. That trend is not limited to any one geographical or denominational identifier, but, is widespread among all nations, all peoples, and all systems of Christian belief. Thousands and thousands of people who would identify themselves as Christian have willingly been led into "pick and choose theology". Most of these pick and choosers tend to identify themselves as “progressive Christians”.

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced that a special Mass and Pilgrimage for Life and Liberty will take place at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on October 14. Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore will preach at the noon Mass.

The USCCB is also encouraging Catholics to take part in a Rosary novena for respect for human life and religious liberty from October 14-22.

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

The Ethics and Public Policy Center has conducted a survey on Catholic women’s attitudes towards contraception.

“Critics of the Church’s teaching propose an image of Catholic women fiercely and forever opposed to the Church’s teaching on contraception, and suggest (wrongly) that nearly all Catholic women use contraception,” according to a preliminary report on the survey.

The report added:

Our research found that up to one-third of church-going Catholic women (26-33%, depending on the question) hold mistaken beliefs about the Church’s teaching on contraception. For example, 33% of Catholic women incorrectly believe that the Church teaches that couples have the right to decide the moral acceptability of contraception regardless of Church teaching. When presented with an accurate description of the Church’s teachings on family planning, many Catholic women show reluctance to completely reject the Church’s teaching …

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

When it comes to Supreme Court decisions, the media and election officials frequently talk about long-standing precedents that become accepted jurisprudence. In their eyes, such precedents should almost never be overturned by subsequent courts.

Justice Antonin Scalia, in a new interview, says he understands and respects Supreme Court precedent but he also says the controversial Roe v. Wade case, that allowed virtually unlimited abortions, is an example of the kind of precedent the high court can and should overturn.

When asked what happens when linguistic analysis of a law conflicts with existing court decisions, Scalia said that judges cannot reinvent the wheel, particularly if precedent has been in place for a long time.

“We are textualists. We are originalists. We are not nuts,” he said.

One prominent exception to that is Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. He does not consider that binding precedent, he said, because it was wrong, remains controversial and is an issue better left to legislators than judges.

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

The Vatican has not yet received a formal response from the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to a proposal for reconciliation that the Holy See made in June, according to reporter Andrea Tornielli of La Stampa.

In July, after a general chapter meeting, SSPX leaders said that they would not accept the latest Vatican offer. The leaders of the traditionalist group gave strong indications that they hoped to continue talks with the Vatican, however.

Monday, September 10, 2012

MP Anna Soubry was appointed a health minister in a reshuffle earlier this week and she is already drawing the ire of pro-life groups with her comments promoting assisted suicide.

Soubry told the Times it was “ridiculous and appalling” that Britons had to “go abroad to end their life.” She said she opposes euthanasia but claimed “you have a right to kill yourself.”

“I think it’s ridiculous and appalling that people have to go abroad to end their life instead of being able to end their life at home,” she said. “You can’t say to a doctor or a nurse, ‘Kill this person’ but…. you have a right to kill yourself. The rules that we have about who we don’t prosecute allow things to happen but there’s a good argument that we should be a bit more honest about it.”

The Department of Health is reported to have said that Mrs Soubry’s comments, and similar comments by Norman Lamb MP, another health minister, were personal views not government policy, and that the issue of assisted suicide was not one for the Department of Health. The Department of Justice is reported to have said that the government has no plans to change the law and that assisted suicide law reform was a matter for Parliament.

Ireland has been known for being a very pro-life nation, which outlaws abortion in all cases. However, there is increasing pressure to review the current law. A European Court of Human Rights panel will release a report in September that may recommend that Ireland’s government allow abortion in the case of risk to a mother’s life. It comes in response to a 2010 ruling the court made, saying women with cancer had their rights violated since they would have to seek an abortion outside the country. According to its 2011 Census, 84% of Ireland is Catholic, which can help explain the country being pro-life.

Liam Gibson, Northern Ireland spokesperson for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, expressed his concerns on a phone interview. “The decline in interest in religion in Ireland has serious implications for the pro-life movement in the country. It is not simply the loss of faith in Irish society which will affect the pro-life message but the change in the culture’s view of human life which will be decisive.”

Kathleen Lynch, minister of state at The Department of Health, thinks that the government has no choice but to allow changes in legislation in order to maintain membership with the European Union.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Patrick W. Danahy was in his office on the 90th floor of Tower 2 in the World Trade Center. As he did every morning, Patrick called his home at 8:30AM, just before the attacks occurred, to tell his wife and girls that he loved them. It would be the last time any of them would hear his voice.

Patrick and his wife Mary, were expecting their third child, already having two girls at the time Alison 3, and Katie 2 . When they were discussing girls names for the third child, Mary had suggested Grace, although Patrick was somewhat hesitant. Mary explained that Our Lady of Grace was the patron saint of motorcyclists (which is true). "It'll have to be," he said. "She'll look out for me when I go out riding." Patrick loved motorcyles, cars (he had bought himself an old Porsche for his last birthday), and mountain bikes. He had participated in a couple of 100 mile bikeathons. He was a man who loved life, and especially his life with his girls.

Mary said that "his girls were his life. He'd do blocks and read books to them every night. He always had to rush home to his girls. He's outgoing, athletic, loved mountain biking, driving his Porsche and his motorcycle." His wife said, "he was the go-to guy. Friends from all over were always calling him, from London and upstate. He was a guy who everybody depended on to get things done."

Mary Danahy spoke to her husband by phone a few minutes before the attack began. She later spoke to a survivor who was with him that morning. "She attributed her being alive to him because he told her to get out quickly," she said.

Mary Danahy tries to help her girls cope. "My older one knows now, and is very angry and doesn't want me to leave her. She asked God for help. She said, 'We need our daddy.' "

Patrick Danahy grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson and in 1988 he graduated from Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y. He was vice president for investor services at Fiduciary Trust. His parents, Frank and Mary Anne Danahy, lived in Kingston for years before moving to Connecticut. On the morning of September 11, 2001, along with 2,996 other innocent victims, Patrick W. Danahy was taken from his family by an act of pure hatred. There was no little Grace to protect him.

One month to the day after a terrorist piloted a plane into the South Tower of The World Trade Center , on October 11, 2001, Mary Danahy gave birth to the couple's third child, Grace.

Almost everyone agrees that the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election is one of the most important, if not the most important elections in the nations history.

People are somewhat divided however as to what issue is the most pressing or important issue of the day. The economy...abortion...same sex marriage...religious liberty...education...and the list goes on and on.

People are disagreeing right, left, and center about what is the most pressing and important issue of the day, and many feel, that there is more than one pressing issue, and that we shouldn't focus on just one issue alone, and throw the rest under the proverbial bus.

My question is, have we been so focused on the "issue of the day", that we Christians have taken our focus off of God?

Many of us have gotten so caught up in politics that we have allowed our faith to take a back seat to the elections. For instnce, I shared the news from Fox News on Saturday, that Iranian pastor, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was origianlly sentenced to death for his Christian faith, was released after 3 years in an Iranian prison. A reason for great joy among Christians around the world. Yet that news seems not to have been noticed until today.

Apparently, the ending of the Democratic Convention was still too fresh in people's minds for them to take any notice of anything not related to politics. While there should have been, and still should be great rejoicing over Nadarkhani's release, there was instead an almost deafening silence.

Therefore, I have decided that on my blogs there will be no mentions of either candidate except in ways that relate to religious liberty, abortion, or same sex marriage.

Why? Because I don't want to be a party to focusing our attention on the world when we should focus our attention on God, and as Catholic, those are the faith issues I will be sharing as regards the elections. If we would all take the time to focus our attention on God, ask for His help, His belssings, and His Grace, then through Him the rest would take care of itself.

Below are some scripture passages for you to consider:

John 14:27Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled: nor let it be afraid.

John 16:33These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress. But have confidence. I have overcome the world.

Romans 12: 2And be not conformed to this world: but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God.

1 Corinthians 1: 20 - 21Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For, seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of our preaching, to save them that believe.

1 Corinthians 3: 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: I will catch the wise in their own craftiness.

James 1: 27Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one’s self unspotted from this world.

2 Peter 2: 20For if, flying from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they be again entangled in them and overcome: their latter state is become unto them worse than the former.

1 John 2: 15 - 17Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life, which is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever.

1 John 4: 1 - 6Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. By this is the spirit of God known. Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that dissolveth Jesus is not of God. And this is Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh: and he is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome him. Because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore of the world they speak: and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

(CNSNews.com) – Supporters of Youcef Nadarkhani are celebrating the news that the Iranian pastor who was sentenced to hang for embracing Christianity has been acquitted and freed.

They are urging prayers for his safety in the aftermath of a case that has raised greater awareness of shari’a-based apostasy laws in Iran and other Islamic countries. They also note that many other religious minority Iranians face discrimination and mistreatment for their beliefs.

Nadarkhani, in his early 30s, walked free after almost three years behind bars, following a six-hour court appearance Saturday ended with his acquittal on apostasy charges, according to reports reaching organizations that have publicized his plight, including the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

CSW cited sources as saying that Nadarkhani was found guilty of an alternative offense, evangelizing Muslims, and given a three-year sentence – but with that time already having been served, he was released.

Saturday, September 08, 2012

Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was originally sentenced to death in his native country for his Christian faith, was acquitted of apostasy charges and released from custody.

Nadarkhani, 32, was imprisoned for three years and waiting execution for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. His charges were lowered to evangelizing to Muslims, which carried a three-year sentence. He was released with time served, according to the American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington-based watchdog group that had been campaigning for the pastor's release.

"Today our sources in Iran reported that Pastor Youcef was acquitted of apostasy and released from prison. After languishing in prison for almost three years, he has been reunited with his family," Jordan Sekulow, executive director of ACLJ said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

CHARLOTTE — A solemn Holy Hour concluded three days – 80 hours – of continuous Eucharistic Adoration at St. Patrick Cathedral to coincide with the Democratic National Convention Sept. 3-6. More than 100 people from Charlotte-area parishes participated in the "Vigil for Liberty," held to pray for religious freedom, protection of the right to life, and an increase in vocations.

Each day of the vigil, worshippers prayed the Chaplet of Adoration and Reparation, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the Holy Rosary.

In his Holy Hour homily, Father Christopher Roux, pastor and rector of the cathedral parish, called out Catholics who are apathetic about their faith and encouraged all of us to embrace the Cross like we really mean it.

"Either be hot or cold. Be one or the other. Don't be apathetic. Don't be wishy-washy," Father Roux said.

Thursday, September 06, 2012

Rome, Italy, Sep 6, 2012 / 01:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Italian Jesuit who was exiled from Syria after criticizing President Bashar al-Assad says he is still hopeful for the country’s future despite its descent into war.

“I see hope in the fact that the Syrian people are very attached to their country, very attached to the fact that they are a mosaic country. People want to keep that. They are committed to pluralism,” said Jesuit Father Paolo Dall’Oglio in an interview with CNA.

Fr. Dall'Oglio spent over 30 years in Syria as part of the Deir Mar Musa Monastic Community. Throughout that time he was a champion for interfaith dialogue in the majority-Muslim country, where Christians make up around 10 percent of the population.

Since being exiled, he has watched in horror as fighting has spread throughout Syria.

Using unusually strong language, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires has criticized Catholic pastors who refuse to baptize children born to single mothers.

The cardinal expressed his sympathy for a young woman who, after becoming pregnant, resists temptations to abortion and gives birth to the child. Then, he said, she finds herself “on a pilgrimage, going from parish to parish, trying to find someone who would baptize her child.”

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, September 5, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After the Democratic party’s decision to remove the last reference to God in the party platform sparked negative media coverage this week, delegates at the Democratic National Convention passed a revised platform that included the Almighty - but not without considerable controversy.

A voice vote took place Wednesday evening on the updated platform, which also included new pro-Israel language; but when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, the chair of the session, first called for the vote, he appeared confused when a considerable portion of the delegates shouted “nay,” making the vote inconclusive.

Villaraigosa then called for a second voice vote, which was also inconclusive. After calling for a third vote, which also appeared to have the delegates divided, Villaraigosa declared that the “ayes” had the needed two-thirds majority, a decision that was greeted with loud boos from those opposed to the revision.

Jesus Christ instructed his followers to remember these words: "No servant is greater than his master: if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also." The truth of this warning has sadly never been more undeniable than in our present age, where in some countries today the very law itself gives itself as a pretext for persecution.

The persistent violence and waves of terror currently waged upon Pakistan's besieged Christian population has today led the Dignitatis Humanae Institute to renew its calls for the Pakistan government to end its so-called "blasphemy trials".

Christians in Pakistan have long lived under an unrelenting reign of persecution, yet the recent rise of injustices against Christians has caused many to despair for any future improvement under the current conditions. In the last month we have seen the three-week holding of Rishma Masih in a high security prison and refused bail. A young Christian girl with Down's syndrome, her alleged crime was the burning of the Koran; which now appears to have been a false allegation concocted by the local Imam. While Rishma may be spared the death penalty, there is still the murder of an 11 year old Christian boy, Samel Yaqoob, to be resolved, his body found burnt, tortured and mutilated.

At the heart of many of these cases is Pakistan's continued enforcement of the blasphemy law - a legal framework with which the Islamic agitators in the country use to terrorise Christian communities for their refusal to adhere to Shariah Law. A license to incite violence, the law is responsible for many attacks on those accused; only this July a defendant was lynched by a mob who stormed the jail.

Today, Nirj Deva MEP, President of the International Committee on Human Dignity, called in the name of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute on the Pakistan government to put an end to the blasphemy prosecutions: "The great nation of Pakistan was the dream of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who envisaged a state where people of all religions would be free to live in peace. It is lamentable that this pioneering vision has been seemingly forgotten and suppressed in today's Pakistan. The current blasphemy law and the safety of Pakistan's Christian minorities are not compatible, as the case of the two children Rishma and Samel and countless other examples sadly demonstrate, and I would therefore urge the Pakistani government to continue the work of the martyred Shahbaz Bhatti and bring an end to these blasphemy prosecutions; all the communities of Pakistan deserve better than this current state of perpetual fear."

The Dignitatis Humanae Institute aims to uphold human dignity based on the anthropological truth that man is born in the image and likeness of God and therefore has an innate human dignity of infinite worth to be upheld. The Institute promotes this understanding by supporting Christians in public life, assisting them to present effective and coherent responses to increasing efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square.

The Homily of Bishop Peter Jugis of the Diocese of Charlotte, September 4, 2012. The homily topics were Religious Liberty, Perpetual Adorartion and the Aniversary of the Cathedral of St. Patrick. The Mass was celebrated during the Democratic National Convention taking place in Charlotte.

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

In Pakistan, a controversial legal case has taken a spectacular turn, as an Islamic leader has been arrested for allegedly planting evidence of blasphemy on a mentally disabled Christian girl.

Imam Khalid Chishti is charged with inserting pages of the Qu’ran into a primer that Rimsha Masih had burned. The imam reportedly said that a blasphemy charge would be a “way of getting rid of Christians.”

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

A Syrian rebel group has issued a pledge to protect Christians and honor religious freedom for all minority groups.

The Free Syrian Army (ESL) issued a statement from Aleppo promising that it would “put put under its protection and defense Christians and all other minorities, their holy sites, their members and assets.”

:0

Divine Mercy Poster

Fund Raiser for Cataract Surgery

Subscribe To Our Feed In A Reader

We Are A Pro-Life Blog!

Pope Francis’ prayer intentions for November 2016

The Holy Father’s universal prayer intention for November 2016 is: “That the countries which take in a great number of displaced persons and refugees may find support for their efforts which show solidarity”.

His intention for evangelisation is: “That within parishes, priests and lay people may collaborate in service to the community without giving in to the temptation of discouragement”.